NEW PAINTINGS BY NANCY ROBINSON AND PATRICIA OLSON

What happens when an artist just shuts up and lets a painting speak for itself? Nancy Robinson and Patricia Olson explore this phenomenon in Talking Pictures: New Paintings by Nancy Robinson and Patricia Olson. Olson’s paintings of friends and family mingle with Robinson’s surrealistic self-portraits in this quietly loud exhibition. Longtime artistic co-conspirators, this is the first time they have exhibited together.

Nancy Robinson Artist’s Statement I paint surrealistic self-portraits based on my daily life. In my art, as in my life, everything is strange and confusing. Hidden agendas abound, thoughts manifest themselves through anatomical distortions, and ordinary events are mysterious and alarming.

Exploration of the Self has always been pivotal to my art making. My paintings portray my attempts to reconcile the gaze of The Other and the gaze within. Because everyone made of human flesh struggles with this dilemma, my art pivots between the idiosyncratic and the sublime.

Although my work originates with personal experiences, it ultimately depicts the drama, passion and mystery of the human condition.

Nancy Robinson’s Biography Nancy Robinson was born in New York City and graduated from Lawrence University with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in English. After a brief career in advertising, she became a full-time surrealistic painter. She’s received many awards and fellowships, including several from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Jerome, Target and General Mills Foundations. She has exhibited her work widely in galleries and museums, including a 2009 solo show at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Mia). Robinson met Patricia Olson when they were gallery artists at The Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), and they later worked together on projects through the Women’s Art Institute at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Saint Catherine University.

Patricia Olson Artist’s Statement “The pleasure of seeing into the life of things is one of the least celebrated and most important of the panoply of satisfactions.” As a figurative painter, I agree with this observation of Rebecca Solnit’s. I’ve always been drawn to people in their wonderful specificity and painting them is a chance to see into the lives of others. This exhibition features images of my friends and family, some in straightforward presentations and others in more fanciful settings. There are also a few selfportraits — unavoidable for any figure painter in search of a model. Color is the indispensable element, which I plumb for its mysteries.

Patricia Olson’s Biography Patricia Olson was born in south Minneapolis, and earned a B.A. in studio art at Macalester College in St. Paul, where she studied with painter Jerry Rudquist. She received an M.F.A. in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is a founding member of WARM, the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota, where she first encountered Nancy Robinson. Olson has shown her work in the Twin Cities and regionally for over 40 years, and has work in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota. She is Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University.

Exhibition Dates: March 10 - April 16, 2022

Artists’ Talk: Zoom Live Event Thursday, March 24, 7:00 pm CST ARTISTS’ TALK RECORDING

Meet the Artists Events in the Gallery Friday, April 1, 1:00 - 3:00 pm Saturday, April 16, 1:00 - 3:00 pm Free and open to the public

Exhibition Hours: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 12:00 – 6:00 pm
Appointments are not required.

If you wish to visit outside of gallery hours please email formandcontent@gmail.com to make an appointment.

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